The Rhodes Less Traveled
by Suki59
Summary: Sookie and Eric head for the summit in this sequel to A Different Turn of Events and Sookie is Stunning.
1. Chapter 1

Charlaine Harris owns all of this.

A/N: Please enjoy A Different Turn of Events and Sookie is Stunning before starting this story.

Sookie and I were on our first monthly trip to New Orleans to do the queen's bidding. Sookie had been dreading it of course and had begun referring to the queen as Aunt Flo, apparently in reference to her human monthly cycle. I found it rather amusing but kept reminding her that she could only speak so freely in my presence and Pam's and must behave herself in front of others. Pam was quickly becoming Sookie's biggest fan and I was pleased at their relationship. I constantly worried about Sookie's security and felt better knowing that Pam had her safety in mind as much as I did.

When Sookie and I arrived at the palace, we were escorted into the court and stood before the queen. We both bowed deeply to her. Sophie-Anne began addressing me regarding Bill Compton right away. She was not happy about his demise. He was a heavy earner with his database and was obviously doing some work on the side for her as well which included the seduction of a human Sookie. As a pragmatist, I could see that she would be angered at his loss. He was her little step-and-fetch-it boy and would be difficult to replace.

Sophie-Anne asked me how exactly Compton had died. I had debated with myself about how to handle that and had made the decision to tell the truth. I knew that Sookie was justified in killing him because she was defending her maker and therefore could not be charged with a crime. And Lorena was already gone (thanks to a brave human Sookie), so there would be no reparations to pay to Compton's maker. It wouldn't hurt Sookie's reputation any for others to know that she was capable of killing in spite of how recently she had been turned. I hoped that it might deter any ambitious vampires intent on attacking her. Her stunning gift made her an automatic target and it was a constant concern of mine.

The queen said that she would investigate Compton's killing before making any decisions, which pissed me off. She had no reason to charge Sookie with a crime, and I didn't trust that she would let Compton's death go so easily. Sophie-Anne turned to Andre and asked him to assign someone to investigate and that's when I looked over at him as well. As if on cue, his eyes rolled back into his head and he slid down in his seat as if his bones had turned to liquid and slumped into a little heap on the floor. The room grew silent as all eyes were on an unconscious Andre. I heard a tiny, "I'm sorry," as Sookie whispered beside me, her head still bowed.

No one seemed to know what to do. The queen's bodyguards, Sigebert and Wybert, immediately appeared between Sophie-Anne and Sookie, but then looked around nervously, obviously aware that they were just as vulnerable to Sookie's anger as Andre was. Sophie-Anne simply stared at Sookie in horror. Finally, I broke the silence. "Your highness, perhaps Sookie and I could be excused to our room."

"Yes, by all means, you are excused."

I led Sookie by her arm out the back of the court and a brave Rasul escorted us to our room. Once we were alone, Sookie looked up at me with red tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Am I in trouble?"

I took her in my arms and held her. "It's okay, lover." I rocked her from to side to side until I felt her sadness recede. "Tell me what happened."

"While you and the queen were talking about Bill, I was listening to the brains of Hadley and some of the other human pets up there and heard that Andre was in on the decision to have Bill to fight you for my ownership. He had been surprised that you won the fight because he knew about the silver net and expected Bill to win. Eric, he _wanted_ Bill to win so that the queen could take me away from Bill with you out of the picture. Knowing that Andre was in on the plan to kill you just got me so mad, and well, you know what happened after that. I tried to stop it, but I just couldn't."

"It's okay, really. In a way, I'm glad they all got a little demonstration of your skill. Perhaps it will help you to retain your autonomy. Don't worry about it, lover. When we get home, we'll work on your training some more, okay?"

"Okay." I kissed her and held her and was just contemplating taking it a little further when a gentle knock on the door reminded us why we were there.

Rasul led Sookie and me downstairs so that she could begin her readings for the night. We were sitting at the conference table watching Sookie work when a human messenger came to the door. I had to smile because there were clearly no vampires willing to approach Sookie, and so the queen sent a human. "Excuse me, Mr. Northman, but the queen requests your presence alone in court." I looked from Rasul to Sookie and then replied to the messenger that I was unable to leave Sookie's side and that perhaps Sookie and I could both report to the queen after Sookie's task was completed for the evening. It was a part of our agreement that I would be with Sookie at all times when in the palace, and Sophie-Anne knew this.

Within a few minutes, the messenger had returned and asked me to step out into the hall alone. I looked at Sookie to make sure she was okay with my stepping away and then to Rasul. They both nodded and so I left the room. I was shocked to find the queen herself standing in the hall, flanked by Sigebert and Wybert. "Eric, this simply won't do. I need to be able to call you to court alone."

"My apologies, your highness, but surely you wouldn't want Sookie to be left alone after seeing her little accident with Andre. Plus, it was a part of our agreement that I accompany Sookie at all times here."

"Well, can't your other child, Pam, babysit while I see you in court?"

"I'm terribly sorry, but I had to leave Pam to take care of Fangtasia. Because of the increase in tax that our agreement included, I can't afford to hire another manager to replace Pam. She is needed at the bar and therefore cannot be here to help with Sookie."

The queen stood perfectly still, staring at me without expression. "Very well. I repeal the additional tax, and in return, I want Pam here for Sookie's monthly duty. Is that understood?'

"Absolutely, your majesty. We are all happy to comply with your wishes, of course."

She turned on her heels and marched back towards the stairs, followed by the two giant guards. I kept my smile to myself, but of course was very pleased at the new turn of events.

As satisfied as I was about getting my way in this particular situation, I was also concerned about taking a newborn stunner to the upcoming summit in Rhodes. I knew that I wouldn't be able to leave Sookie at home and so the best I could hope for was an uneventful trip. Somehow, that didn't seem very likely to happen.


	2. Chapter 2

I had to suffer through three monthly visits to the palace before the trip to Rhodes. Fortunately, during the first visit, I accidentally stunned toad-boy (Andre), which inadvertently led to the queen reducing the tax Eric has to pay on Fangtasia back to its original percentage, so at least something good came out of one of the trips.

I was actually kind of excited about Rhodes until I was told that I'd have to man the sales booth for Bill's database. I suppose that was part of my unofficial punishment for killing Bill. Pam said she'd help me at least.

So on the first night of the summit, I was in my little booth dressed like a ridiculous harem girl. My harem-girl partner, Pam, had taken a break to go upstairs and watch a vampire wedding with Eric. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and starting to get mad that I was being excluded from all of the goings-on upstairs in the ballroom. There was some big fancy wedding and probably a reception afterwards. I knew Eric had to attend a bunch of hush-hush big muckety-muck meetings. Eric actually got to go to all kinds of things, but I was stuck in harem retail world in my sad little booth with stacks of cds for sale. And of course, that all reminded me of Bill, which wasn't helping my mood much. We seemed to have a lot of sales when Pam was with me, but when I was alone, I got the feeling that a lot of people were just staring at me. My anger and frustration were building and finally I guess I just lost my temper at the whole thing and—uh oh, I started to see red. Sure enough, I heard several thuds all around me and when my vision cleared, there were seven vampires lying all around my booth out cold. Suddenly, all the vampires that remained on their feet were running for the exits. Even the other booth vendors abandoned their wares and took off. Very quickly, I was left standing with my little circle of sleeping customers in a big silent room.

I heard a door open and close across the room behind the screens of blue fabric that lined the walls, and Eric emerged with a concerned look on his face. I felt my bottom lip quivering as he took me in his arms. "It's okay, lover. Why are you upset?"

"I just hate that I'm missing all the fun. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so mad."

Eric rocked me in his arms and one by one, the stunned vampires woke and ran from the room. I felt like a social pariah. "I'll tell you what. As soon as Pam can get away, I'll send her to relieve you and you and I can go to a party together. How would that be?"

"Really?"

"Yes, love. Just wait here for Pam and then I'll meet you in the queen's suite and we can go dance at the wedding reception. I just have one more meeting and then I'll be free, okay?"

"Thanks, sweetie. I could really use a little fun."

Eric left just as some vampires began returning to the room, I suppose having heard that the crazy stunner was under control again. I took a deep but unnecessary breath, determined not to get angry again. I went back to straightening out the little stacks of cds in our booth when a tall handsome were approached me. I recognized his thought patterns and knew that he was something special, but wasn't certain what that might be. He had a shaved head and broad shoulders and purple eyes and a huge smile as he bowed to me. "John Quinn at your service."

"Sookie Stackhouse." I bowed as well.

"So, you're the famous telepathic stunner that has everybody all atwitter around here, huh?"

"Yeah, that would be me."

"You know, it's no accident that you're stuck down here while everybody else is upstairs whooping it up. They're all afraid of you and I love it. There aren't many beings that can strike fear into a room full of powerful vamps. I predict great things ahead for you, babe."

"But you're not afraid of me?"

"Well, you can't stun me. I'd be fine with a little mind-reading. And you're no scarier than any other vamp to me. In fact, I'd be willing to bet you could use a friend." I listened to his thoughts and found nothing insincere in what he was saying. "Well, I need to get back to the party. I'm still on the clock. See you around?"

"Yeah, sure. Nice to meet you, John."

"Please call me Quinn. All my friends do."

"Okay, Quinn."

As soon as Pam returned and apologized for leaving me alone, I left to go to my room to change, excited that I'd at least be able to catch the tail end of one of the parties. I'd bought a new pretty party dress and was wondering whether or not I'd ever get the chance to wear it. After I'd changed, I rode down to the fourth floor where the Louisiana vampires' suite was. When I stepped out of the elevator I noticed an empty soda can in an urn between the elevators. I hate it when people are slobs and so I picked it up to discard it myself and noticed that it wasn't an empty soda can at all.

I was frozen, wondering how to proceed with what I was starting to suspect was a bomb. An elevator stopped, opened, and then left immediately with a Britlingen inside protecting her assigned vampire. I assumed that she reported what I'd found to someone because shortly after that, Quinn appeared, out of breath from rushing up the stairs. He approached me slowly and carefully.

"Just hand it to me, babe."

"No, Quinn. I don't think we should move it."

"You're too important to risk your life for these jealous asshole vampires, Sookie. How many of them do you see up here willing to help you?"

"One," came the reply as Eric emerged from the stairwell.

The two alpha males stood and argued over which one of them would save me until finally some guy from the bomb squad came and took the can from me and then disappeared back into the stairwell. The three of us relaxed and Eric turned and growled at Quinn.

"I'll see you later, okay?" Quinn jumped into the next elevator that came along.

Eric and I got into the other one when the doors opened, but then when they closed, Eric hit the stop button. I turned to look at him and was hit with a powerful wave of lust. His crystal blue eyes burned into mine as I felt a hand caressing my behind, slowly gathering the fabric of my dress up. "Eric, are you doing this because you're jealous of Quinn? I don't want to be the prize for some silly pissing contest."

"Is there something for me to be jealous of? Was that were hitting on you? Shall I speak to him?"

"I'm a vampire who can stun, Eric. I think I could handle myself if someone made an unwelcome pass at me."

"And what if someone made a welcome pass at you?"

"Then his name would be Eric Northman." He seemed to like that line because in a vampire flash, his lips were on mine and his tongue roughly explored my mouth, my neck, my cleavage. I pushed him away, hitting the start button so that we could resume our elevator ride. "See, honey, I don't want you to do this because of some prehistoric caveman mentality that makes you just want to own me because you perceived some competition."

Eric's eyes burned into mine with a fierce intensity. "I could have lost you, lover."

I hit the stop button again. "Say more stuff like that."

Those lips found mine again. The kisses trailed down my neck. "I love you, Sookie. I couldn't go on if anything happened to you."

Now that's what I wanted to hear. My hands found Eric's fly as his continued pulling my dress up. My little pink thong shot across the elevator like a rubber band and Eric was inside me in a vampire flash. I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he slammed me up against the wall, his tongue tangling with mine. I felt the elevator jostling and wondered if the cables would hold. Our thrusts became more forceful as we headed towards our climaxes together. We were both grunting in the same rhythm and just as we neared the peak, the alarm bell sounded, drowning out our screams of pleasure. The elevator jolted and we began to move, heading down to the lobby. Eric and I were both laughing as we quickly disengaged and tried to right our clothes. He took a step back and I felt my dress fall into place around my legs just as the doors opened to a crowd of people. The police and hotel security immediately began peppering us with questions about the soda can bomb. We stepped out of the elevator and I started to explain what had happened when I felt Eric turn and step back inside. I glanced back just in time to see him stuffing a tiny piece of pale pink silk into his jacket pocket—oh yeah, my thong.

We answered questions for law enforcement and spent the rest of the night in the queen's suite discussing security issues and pretty soon it was time to retire and my night of dancing was clearly just not going to happen. On my way out the door, I nearly tripped over a heavy suitcase and wondered whose it was and why they hadn't unpacked yet. I asked who it belonged to but everybody ignored me. Eric and I barely had time to get back up to our room on the ninth floor before dawn took me. So much for my first big night at the summit. At least the elevator ride was good.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke on the second night in Rhodes dreading my little harem routine in the booth. Yes, it was boring, I thought, but at least there weren't any bombs. So I got dressed and Eric and I had room service before heading downstairs. We met Pam in the hallway as her room was right next to ours.

Eric left us in our cheesy little booth and went upstairs to some meeting while Pam and I sold cds. I promised him that I'd try to control my temper. After a few hours, Eric reappeared with a grim look on his face. "Did you bring something to wear that looks a little more business-like, lover?"

I was so happy to be relieved of cd duty and thanked Pam profusely for minding the booth while I changed. I wanted a quickie in the room, but Eric was uncharacteristically serious and said we couldn't be late. That actually gave me pause and I wondered what I was headed for.

Eric led me down to the third floor and I knew we were seeing somebody important because it seemed that the lower the floor, the higher the vamps. The door was flanked by two tall black female vampires carrying swords who didn't look me in the eye. Eric and I stepped inside to a sitting room with four vampires in it. An old woman on the sofa stood and introduced herself and dismissed the other three. She was the Ancient Pythoness, the oldest looking vampire I had ever seen, and by that I mean that she was old when she was turned. I had no idea how old she really was. I quickly realized that she was also blind.

"I am so pleased to meet you. May I call you Sookie?"

"Yes, please do."

"I understand that you are new and therefore have issues controlling your gift. As a precaution, I have brought you here to my suite. If I am stunned, I will be surrounded only by those that I trust. May I dismiss your maker so that we can be alone?"

I looked at Eric who sent me a wave of calm. "Yes, ma'am."

Eric stepped out into the hall but I could still feel that he was near. The Pythoness explained that she was the judge in the vampire court cases being conducted in the ballroom downstairs. She had several cases coming up that involved humans and wished for me to read those on the witness stand for her. "You may deny my request, of course. No one can force you to comply. But you should also be aware that I have agreed to pay the state of Louisiana the fee that Andre Paul negotiated with my people in return for your assistance." I felt my temper flare at the mention of Andre's name, but I tamped it down. "You should also be aware that your maker objects to our agreement. His position is that he wants what is best for you and not just your state. You should also know that he incurred a heavy fine by interfering. I negotiated waiving his fine as part of our agreement. I find his concern for you to be touching. Fascinating, actually. He asked that I provide a Britlingen for your protection. They cannot be stunned, you know. And they are very expensive. But it was his personal request and so I agreed."

I thought about it as she explained what I'd be doing and I made the decision to do it. It made me mad that Andre had rented me out as a commodity, but I felt like reading humans on the witness stand would make for a much more interesting evening than selling cds would.

And so our entourage made quite a little show as we entered the court that was set up in a ballroom downstairs. I was flanked by Eric and a Britlingen named Clovache who made the Pythoness' tall women with swords look like pansies. We all found our places on stage with the help of Quinn (who gave me a wink that I hoped Eric didn't catch). Eric was seated below the platform but in the front row of spectator seats and never took his eyes off of me. I sat beside the Pythoness.

The cases were very interesting, and I simply sat quietly and listened until a human was put on the stand. Then I approached the stand and held the human's hand while he or she testified and then if I had anything to report I walked across the stage to whisper to the Pythoness as quietly as possible. I knew that there were probably plenty of vampire ears that could hear me, but at least the humans couldn't. Fortunately, they all spoke the truth as directed and we had no problems. This went on for several cases and most of the night until the final case began. I read two humans from Arkansas on the stand and as I finished with the second one, she was stepping down as the next witness was called—a vampire named Henrik Feith. I was crossing the stage to return to my place beside the Pythoness and glanced at Henrik as I passed him. He had a look of absolute horror on his face which I found very odd until I looked down and saw the wooden arrow protruding from his chest. The entire room grew silent as every vampire hit the floor—that is every vampire except for Eric. I heard the Pythoness shriek since she was the only one who hadn't seen what had happened but clearly knew that something was wrong. I vaguely registered Eric's movement as he flew to me with vampire speed, but it was Quinn who was closer and got to me first and took the second arrow in his shoulder. Everything seemed to happen at once—poor Henrik disintegrated, Clovache produced a throwing star and decapitated the vampire who had thrown the arrows, Eric knocked me to the floor and Quinn lay bleeding beside me. The smell of blood hit me and I was grateful that Eric had ahold of me.

Very quickly, Clovache and Eric had me out the door and into the stairwell. We ran up to the ninth floor and Eric had me in our room in a flash. Clovache waited outside our door. I sat on the bed and watched Eric pace mostly. He kept pulling his phone out of his pocket and calling someone, but clearly all he got was a voice mail. Finally, he got a person and told them he'd be right down. He knelt on the floor in front of me and took my hands in his. "I'm going down to find out what happened. It didn't appear to me that you were the intended target, but I'll feel better when we learn more. Don't leave this room, okay? Clovache will be right outside."

I kissed him and promised I'd wait. After about an hour, he finally called and told me to change into my formal and to have Clovache escort me back down to him. He was still in a meeting, but the ball was going ahead as planned. I was excited that I'd finally get to have some fun and quickly changed into my ice blue dress that I knew Eric would just love.

I called the front desk after I'd changed and asked where Quinn had been taken. Then Clovache and I headed downstairs together. My first stop was at the infirmary. Two weres were tending to Quinn, but when he saw me, he told them that he wanted me to come in. Clovache and the weres waited outside as I sat beside Quinn's bed.

"Quinn, you're the bravest of the brave."

He smiled his broad smile in spite of being in obvious pain and I told him what happened even though I really knew very little. I thanked him for his selfless act and he just said, "That's what friends are for."

I was overwhelmed at his courage and only thought about it for a brief second before I pricked my finger on my fang and held it out to him. His smile faltered and his eyes never left mine as he took my finger in his mouth. As I withdrew my finger, he said, "There aren't many vampires that would offer their blood to a were. I don't know what to say."

"That's what friends are for, Quinn."

And then I headed downstairs to dance the rest of the night away with my beautiful boyfriend.


	4. Chapter 4

Sookie's beauty would have taken my breath away had I actually breathed. She entered the ballroom in a long ice blue dress with little silvery beads on it and all heads turned as she beamed at me. Sookie is stunning. And she is mine. In spite of a harrowing night, we managed to salvage the rest of the evening just dancing and enjoying each other.

The summit had been a stressful time for me. I should have just been another member of the Louisiana contingent enjoying the weddings and parties, observing the court dramas, but instead I spent almost all of my time attending meetings about Sookie. I managed to keep most of this from Sookie by making sure she was occupied at the database booth. Poor Pam was assigned to babysit her and the one time she tried to get away for a little fun, Sookie accidentally stunned a handful of innocent bystanders. I promised Sookie that when we got home, we'd resume her training, but in all honesty, I wasn't so keen on getting her trained so quickly anymore. The sooner Sookie has her gift under control, the sooner she may be taken from me.

What Sookie didn't know was that Andre was spending a great deal of his time at the summit bargaining with other monarchs for her. God knows how many deals he was really working on, but I was aware of four different offers of marriage from other states' kings and queens only because the details of them had already been finalized and were presented to me. Andre was clearly conflicted about what to do with Sookie. She was a rare asset to be sure, but a dangerous one as well. She hated Andre and I'm sure that he wanted to avoid being around her at all costs. So what does a person do with a valuable asset that he doesn't really want to keep around? He sells it, of course.

I kept trying to convince Sophie-Anne that once Sookie's training was complete that she would prove to be a vampire worth keeping. The queen saw the loyalty that Sookie inspired among the Louisiana vampires and I believe that it impressed her. I suggested making Sookie a sheriff herself after a respectable amount of time or creating a special position for her in which her talents could be best utilized. I stressed that the queen would someday come to regret that Sookie had been sold to another state—that whatever monetary value she had today would be dwarfed in years to come by her value as a leader in the state. I could see that I was influencing Sophie-Anne, but I also knew that Andre would always have her ear more so than I ever would.

Selfishly, I intended to never give Sookie up. I would meet the sun myself before I'd see her married to someone else, monarch or not. There is no price I would ever accept for her, of course, but I couldn't say that to the queen or to Andre. So, for the time being, my best bet was to convince them that she needed more time to be controlled and trained. At least that would buy me another year or so, and by then hopefully I'd have another plan. I would never give her up.

I was secretly pleased when Sookie accidentally stunned the vampires at her booth on the first night of the summit. It demonstrated her inability to control her gift, and the offer from the king of New York was quickly withdrawn afterwards. Yes, stunning is an unusual gift, but a dangerous one as well.

The one bargain that was struck for Sookie that I was overridden on was renting her services to the Ancient Pythoness. I argued against it and was worried about accidental stunnings and Sookie's safety, of course, but once Sookie met the Pythoness, I felt a little better about it. And maybe Andre's getting a little money in his pocket would demonstrate that Sookie could make more for him as a long-term rental rather than as a short term sale.

Things in court were going just fine, of course, until Sookie was almost killed by an arrow from an assassin. As much as I hated that were, Quinn, I was grateful that he had jumped in front of Sookie and taken the arrow that was headed for her. We were all fairly certain that the only intended target was the newly really dead Henrik Feith, and so I made the decision to continue our evening plans and dance. We stayed until the final song and were one of the last couples to leave. I had dismissed Clovache earlier, and so it was just the two of us when we made it back to our room. We didn't have a lot of time, but we made love up until the last minute. I was holding Sookie in my arms telling her how much I loved her when she fell into her rest. I spent my remaining waking moments just looking at her and wondering what I had ever done to deserve such a treasure.

The third night of the summit was divided into two parts. The first half of the night was taken with more court cases, but they were all jury cases and so the Pythoness didn't need Sookie's services. I spent most of that time in the booth with Sookie so that Pam could do some exploring. When Pam returned to let us know that court was over, Sookie and I went upstairs to our room for her to change, leaving Pam to tend to the booth.

Once Sookie was in normal clothes, we met the queen for the commerce part of the evening. I assured the queen that it was extremely unlikely that any part of that event would make Sookie angry enough to stun anyone, but I noticed that she kept Sigebert and Wybert nearby just in case. I wanted to show the queen just how valuable Sookie is as a telepath. Hopefully, such knowledge would lessen Sookie's chances of being sold. Sookie did a spectacular job of reading humans that the queen was doing business with and I could see that Sophie-Anne was impressed. Finally at the end of the commerce segment, we were excused and went back to our room to retire.

We both got ready for bed and then began to discuss what we wanted to do for the following night. There was some free time scheduled to explore Rhodes and Sookie was eager to see some of the city. She wanted to go to the zoo, which was on the list of sights for us to see and would be open at night by special arrangement. That reminded me that I had seen that were tiger earlier and commented to Sookie that he certainly had healed quickly. I felt an immediate pang of guilt from Sookie.

"Do you want to tell me why you feel guilt when I mention that tiger?"

"Oh, is he a tiger? I didn't know."

"Don't change the subject, lover. What did you do, give him your blood?" I was absolutely kidding because the idea was so completely absurd, but one look at Sookie's face and I knew that that's exactly what she had done. I lost it and flew off the handle. It is insane for a vampire to give a were blood. We are natural enemies. Yes, he took an arrow for her and I was grateful (but kept it to myself), but I was furious that Sookie had healed him and that she hadn't told me. I'll admit that I probably overreacted and yes, I was jealous. I knew that Sookie would not have cheated on me with the ridiculous tiger, but I may have made some rude remark that hinted that she had been sexually inappropriate by offering her blood to him. And that was the last comment I recall making.

I woke from my stun several minutes later and Sookie was not in the bed. I panicked for a moment because I knew that she was close to her time of rest if not already past it. I jumped up and scoured the room and then found her asleep in the bathtub. She looked so peaceful in there in her pretty gown and I felt immediately guilty for making her so mad that she wanted to sleep somewhere other than at my side. As much as I would miss her, I decided to respect her wishes and leave her in there. It's not as if she would be uncomfortable—she was sleeping the sleep of the dead and could feel nothing. Even though it made no sense, I placed a pillow under her head and covered her with a blanket from our bed. Somehow that made me feel better about being such a dick to her. And then I got back into bed and waited for dawn to take me as well. I knew that when we woke, Sookie would most likely not be speaking to me, but I figured we had all the time in the world to work through that.


	5. Chapter 5

I woke to odd sounds and sensations. The strongest feeling was a deep longing—an urgency that I couldn't put my finger on. I opened my eyes and saw Quinn's face. "What happened?"

"There was an explosion. The hotel was bombed." I didn't even give him time to finish answering me before I jumped to my feet. I suddenly realized that the odd urgency I was feeling was Eric's call. He was calling me. I ran towards the door with Quinn right behind me. We were in the basement of some unfamiliar building and it had become a makeshift hospital for vampires. I passed rows and rows of gurneys with injured vampires on them. The uninjured were tending to the more severely wounded and burned vampires. The stench of blood and burned flesh was overwhelming.

We found the exit and emerged onto the sidewalk above us. I turned in the direction of the call and took off. I ran as fast as I could for a few blocks and then suddenly the pull disappeared. I stopped and tried to feel for it, but it was gone. I tried not to panic and began moving again. Quinn caught up to me and I explained to him what had happened. As we continued on our way, he told me how he had found me during the day inside a bathtub under a pile of debris. The lower half of my body had been exposed to the sun, but was safely covered by a blanket. Quinn pulled me out of the wreckage and took me to the infirmary in The Thorne Building where vampires were being treated and stayed with me until I had awakened. It occurred to me to ask him if he had suffered any injuries, but he seemed perfectly fine to me. I thanked him for saving me and swore my fealty to him and then asked him to help me find Eric. He stopped me and turned me to face him as he spoke, both of his big hands gripping my shoulders. "Sookie, if you ever wanted to be free of your maker, this is your chance. That's all I'm saying. It's a pretty rare opportunity. Do you want a minute to think about it?"

I'm sure that my mouth was open and my eyes were as wide as saucers. I composed myself and leveled my stare at him. I tried my best to control my anger but I was gritting my teeth when I replied. "I'm going to find Eric. You can help me or not, but take your hands off of me."

Quinn let go and held his hands up in surrender and gave me a nod in understanding. "I'm sorry. Let's go then." And we took off again. I remembered the awful fight Eric and I had had the night before about Quinn, but none of that mattered now. I had to find Eric. Nothing else mattered.

As we rounded the corner and the hotel came into view, I was shocked at the site before me. Instead of the beautiful pyramid, I saw a huge pile of smoldering rubble surrounded with fire trucks and ambulances. Both humans and vampires were crawling all over it searching for victims. I was hit with hundreds of thoughts of people calling for help. I tried to narrow the voices down to only those closest to me and grabbed a policeman and started pointing. Quinn explained to him that I was a telepath and soon we had a small group of men pulling people out from pockets of debris. I left the group to their task and continued my search for Eric. I saw Barry, Stan Davis' human telepath, helping a group of firemen just like I had. I closed my eyes and focused and soon felt a group of vampire voids and began moving in their direction. I saw several vampires climbing out of the debris on their own and directed them down to the emergency personnel. I warned Quinn, still by my side, to watch out for injured and hungry vampires. He had borrowed a flashlight from a policeman as he didn't have the night vision I had.

I was searching for the injured, moving large pieces of debris to free some vampires when I felt the call again. This time it was just a flash of feeling and was gone as quickly as it came, but it was enough of a pull to turn me in the right direction. I began moving pieces of furniture, chunks of wall, tangles of pipe and electrical wires, tunneling my way to where I believed Eric was. Quinn was beside me. He was strong as well, but not as strong as I was, and so I left the smaller pieces for him. We continued in this manner for probably over an hour and were finally rewarded with a vampire. I found the feet first and we carefully uncovered the body of a woman in a flannel nightgown. I brushed the blood-soaked hair from her face and saw that it was Pam. I felt bloody tears of relief stain my face as I held her to me. She was obviously injured and unconscious, but her body remained intact and so I knew that she would heal. I carefully handed her to Quinn and watched him gingerly pick his way out of the tunnel we had created with Pam over one shoulder.

I returned to my task, pulling debris out of my way as I searched for voids with my mind. Soon I sensed two more voids and began tunneling faster. I removed chunks of concrete that seemed to be blocking some sort of doorway and beyond it I found a small cavern within the wreckage. The first vampire I came to was conscious but obviously severely injured. He was lying on his stomach, slowly crawling forward. His back legs were crushed and no longer functioned, but he was able to pull himself along with his arms. He seemed to have a definite intended path in his tedious and painful journey. I began crawling towards him from behind and as I got closer, I recognized the small frame and blond hair although it was dulled by a covering of dust and debris. My stomach turned as I realized that it was Andre. Of all the vampires I knew, he was the last on my list of those that I wanted to save. I thought of how he had wanted to own me and then conspired with Bill to kill Eric. He was an evil little toad and I truly hated him, but I was here to rescue injured people and he was obviously one. And so I continued my crawl towards him. As I got closer, I saw that he had a large wood splinter in his right hand and it alarmed me. That could obviously be used as a stake and warning bells went off inside my vampire mind.

If he heard me behind him, he certainly gave no indication. He kept crawling forward with dogged determination. I saw that he was looking ahead of him and followed his line of sight and right there in front of us about ten feet away was a messy blond head sticking out of a pile of debris. Eric. I realized in a flash that Andre was on an assassin's mission and his target was Eric. I felt my vision began to cloud and fought with all my might to raise my shields. I didn't want my temper to render Andre helpless. As soon as I felt my vision return, I lunged forward, surprising Andre as I snatched the splinter from his hand. He rolled onto his back and faced me with shock in his eyes. He managed to say my name but that was all he got out before I buried the primitive stake in his chest. He was still disintegrating when I crawled away towards Eric.

Under the debris covering Eric's body was a huge slab of concrete. I was unable to move it. I began searching for something to use for leverage and found a long length of rebar. I positioned it under a corner of the slab and pushed with all my might. As the slab shifted, I tried to kick Eric's body to move him. As I felt my strength failing, I lowered the slab back as gently as possible. I repeated this for over an hour and had managed to free one of Eric's legs, but my method was slow. As I was repositioning my rebar I heard with my mind a faint calling of my name. It was muffled and tangled—were. I called out as loudly as I could for Quinn and within a few minutes he was back by my side. "I couldn't find you, Sookie. I was worried that you'd be buried in here as well and I wouldn't be able to get you out."

I showed him my procedure to free Eric, only this time, as I lifted the slab, Quinn pulled Eric's body and made much more significant progress. It only took us another few minutes to free Eric. I examined his body as best I could. He was intact and would survive. I thanked Quinn as my voice cracked with emotion and we began our task of removing Eric from the rubble and getting him to safety. I laughed to myself through my tears as I thought I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel in more ways than one. I wanted nothing more than to be free of the Pyramid of Gizeh.


	6. Chapter 6

I woke to pain. My entire body was wracked with pain. I opened my eyes and I was at home in my own bed but had no memory of getting there. The last thing I remembered was going to bed in my hotel room in Rhodes with an angry Sookie in the bathtub. No wait, there was another dim memory. Pain again and fear and calling Sookie and Pam to me. And then nothing.

Sookie appeared in the doorway to our room in a flash. "You're awake! How is the pain?"

"Pretty bad. What happened?"

Sookie told me about the explosion as she opened the bag of donor blood she had in her hand. I drank while she explained what had happened to me. Apparently, I had many broken bones including my spine, but I would heal in time. Pam had already healed from her wounds and was at Fangtasia. Sookie was uninjured thanks to her decision to sleep in the bathtub after our argument.

She told me how the were tiger had rescued her during the day and taken her to safety and then carried Pam and myself out of the wreckage after he and Sookie found us the following night. I was amazed at his courage and devotion to Sookie and promised her that I would thank him personally when I had healed. I told Sookie that I was sorry for the things that I had said to her in the heat of our argument the night before the explosion. I was jealous of the tiger, but regardless of his motives, he had proven to be an invaluable ally to Sookie and consequently to Pam and to me. I clearly owed him my life as well as the lives of the two people who were the most important to me. Sookie gently kissed my lips and I felt a cool blood tear drip onto my cheek from her eye. We told each other we loved each other and I had never meant it more.

After a few more days of healing, I was able to tolerate the pain enough to contact the palace in New Orleans to check in. We had lost two vampires in the explosion—a man named Gervaise who was the Area Four sheriff in Baton Rouge that I didn't know very well and Andre Paul. The other Louisiana vampires had been injured but all were expected to recover except for Sophie-Anne. She had lost her legs and it was not yet known whether she would be able to heal from such severe wounds. She remained unconscious and heavily guarded I presumed.

Of course, many other vampires and humans perished in the bombing, and it would likely be months before all people were accounted for. I felt very lucky to be safe at home with Sookie and Pam.

I told Sookie of Gervaise and Andre's final deaths and felt a twinge of guilt from her at the mention of Andre. I decided that there was no reason to keep Andre's plans for her to myself any longer and so I told her all about the meetings in Rhodes where Andre had planned to marry her to another state. I told her that I'd feared it would just be a matter of time before he would have taken her from me even though I would have fought for her until my final death. She sat and listened to me with a blank expression and then simply said, "Then I'm glad that I staked him."

"You must never repeat those words to another soul, Sookie. But for what it's worth, I'm glad that you did as well."

She told me the story of how Andre was crawling towards me and she took the splinter of wood from him and drove it into his chest. My heart swelled with pride and I told her that she was the most magnificent creature I had ever known and that I would never stop loving her. Her loyalty, her honor, her fearlessness—all these qualities made her so special. I couldn't believe that she was mine and vowed to cherish her for all time.

I could see that Louisiana was in a vulnerable state with our queen out of commission and possibly permanently disabled. Her second in command was gone, and although personally I was pleased about that, it made our state that much weaker in the eyes of other, more opportunistic vampires. As much as I feared for Sophie-Anne's future reign, there was little I could do about it in my present condition. All of my energy and efforts were focused on my recovery, maintaining the status quo in Area Five, and protecting Sookie and Pam.

The future of the state was up in the air. Who knows what lies ahead for any of us. But as long as Sookie and I are together, I am confident that we will prevail. The night I turned her in a moment of heartbroken grief, I had no idea that I was creating my perfect mate and possibly the most unusual and important vampire of our time. Sookie is stunning in many ways and I look forward to my future with her forever by my side.


	7. Chapter 7

Eric was recovering at home when I got the call to go to New Orleans. Apparently, my monthly services were still required even after all the mess at Rhodes. Actually, my job was even more important with the queen in such a vulnerable state. Eric and I argued about it for days. He obviously couldn't go with me and he didn't want me to go without him. He tried to get up, but the pain was too much. I could feel it as well, of course, so it wasn't as if he could fake it enough to say he was well enough to travel. Finally, he lost the argument and Pam and I made plans to go without him. Maxwell Lee was assigned to be at the house every evening before he went to Fangtasia to see that Eric got his donor blood, but beyond that, there wasn't really much anyone could do for Eric. He just needed time to heal.

When we arrived at the palace, we could see that the whole monarchy was in turmoil. The queen was still recovering somewhere in the palace and without her presence and Andre's, the court was simply chaos. Several area sheriffs ran the court and were constantly bickering and fighting for control of the floor. When Pam and I saw the state of things, we made the decision together to have her spend her time in the court representing Area Five. We could see that our area was threatened to be taken over and without Eric's presence, we were in a very vulnerable position.

And so I read the humans in my conference room with Rasul while Pam was upstairs trying to convince a bunch of power-hungry vamps that Eric was still in control. The situation made me very uneasy. To make things worse, some of the humans the queen was doing business with were thinking of taking advantage of her situation and I had to report this to Rasul. I watched as a handful of humans were taken away by vampire guards and I was more than a little concerned about their fate. Rasul assured me that they would not be physically harmed and after I begged him, he agreed to go and check on them for me. I took the opportunity to step outside for some much needed air.

I was taking a walk around the grounds when I heard a scuffle back in a corner of the property. The security walls were high and it was extremely unlikely that an intruder could scale them, and so I assumed that I had stumbled on some sort of fight between power-hungry vampires. Maybe some pair from court decided to take their fight outside. I couldn't have been more surprised as I approached the noise and saw the giant Wybert holding a tiger in his arms. The tiger was struggling, but Wybert's face was buried in the tiger's neck and it was clearly being drained of its blood. I knew in an instant, of course, that the tiger was Quinn and assumed that he had come to see me for some reason. I was so furious that Wybert would have taken it upon himself to attack Quinn and was now clearly intent on killing him. My temper flared and I wasn't able to stop it. Frankly, I wasn't unhappy about stunning the vicious Wybert and felt very little guilt as I heard him hit the dirt.

As soon as I recovered my vision, I knelt over the now unconscious tiger and examined his wounds. He had lost a great deal of blood and it was evident that he may die. This time I thought about my decision for a moment. I knew that Eric would be mad, but Quinn had risked his life for me twice and saved Eric and Pam as well. I just couldn't watch him die and so I bit into my wrist and held it up to the animal's open mouth. I watched the blood drip onto the huge rough tongue until my wound closed. Then I forced the tiger's jaws closed and held his muzzle with one arm while I stroked his throat with my other hand. Gran had taught me to do this when trying to get my cat, Tina, to take a pill in what seemed like a lifetime ago on another planet. I felt the tiger involuntarily swallow and hoped that some of the blood had gone down.

Apparently, I was successful because not only did the tiger begin to come around, but he shifted right in front of me and soon there was a very naked and bloody Quinn lying across my lap. He opened his eyes and I was hit with a wave of confusion and then alarm. I looked around to see if Eric was near, even though my conscious mind knew it to be impossible. But I also knew that those feelings weren't my own and how else could they be explained. I looked back to Quinn's face and he looked very serious. "Oh my god, Sookie. We're blood bonded."

"What do you mean? What happened? I can feel you."

"You gave me blood for the third time. Fuck, we're bonded. You can turn me at any time." His alarm was increasing.

"Turn you? I don't want to turn you. I've only given you blood one other time, Quinn. This can't be possible."

"No, Sookie. I never told you but when I found you in that bathtub in the rubble in Rhodes, you had been injured and so had I. You had some cuts and abrasions on your face that were already healing, but I was pretty banged up and had a dislocated shoulder. I wasn't sure if I could climb out of the wreckage on my own, much less take you with me and so I licked the blood on your face to heal myself. I never told you because I didn't think you needed to know. The end result was that we were both saved and I figured that's all that mattered. But, fuck, you just gave me more blood."

I heard Wybert begin to stir behind me and Quinn and I stood quickly. Quinn's eyes went from Wybert back to me and then he just turned and ran towards the back gate. I ran back towards the palace and slipped back inside, making sure that no one saw me. I went back to the conference room and waited for Rasul, my mind racing. I had so many questions. Why was Quinn at the palace? Why hadn't anyone ever explained the bonding thing to me? And now what was I going to do? I didn't even want to think about what Eric is going to say when he finds out about this. When I let Quinn suck my finger in Rhodes, Eric practically called me a whore in that fight we had the night before the bombing. Now what would he say if he'd seen me holding a naked Quinn and bonding myself to him. I don't even want to know.

Soon, Rasul returned with some more humans to read and I was back to work. At the end of our session, he and I walked back upstairs to the court and I scanned the room for Pam. She and I made eye contact and I sat in the back of the room to wait for her. She was sitting in the front listening to two other vampires argue about who was in charge of Area One when an angry Wybert burst into the court. All eyes turned to him as he approached the front of the room. He reported that Quinn, the were tiger, had broken onto the property and attacked him while he stood guard in the rear of the palace grounds. Someone asked where the body was and I could see Wybert's embarrassment when he reported that the tiger had escaped and he'd been searching the grounds for him but was unsuccessful. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, wondering whether or not Wybert realized that he'd been stunned. But my discomfort and Wybert's didn't last long because two more guards entered and proclaimed victory as they, too, had fought intruders on the grounds. Both of them had killed the vampire intruders. One knew nothing about his victim, but the other recognized the now-dead vampire as a sheriff from Nevada. Murmurs of shock swept through the room. More guards were dispatched to patrol the grounds and Pam and I exchanged a look of concern between us. I had no idea what was going on, but it didn't look good.


	8. Chapter 8

I was pissed and afraid for Sookie to go to New Orleans without me. She was still so new and knew so little about the goings-on at the palace. Plus I had no idea what she and Pam might find with the queen out of commission and Andre out of the picture. But I was in no state to travel and finally lost the battle. I could have forbidden her to leave, but I trusted Pam to take care of Sookie and knew that Sookie's refusal to do her job could cause trouble for Area Five. I didn't want it to appear that we couldn't handle business as usual. I wasn't as vulnerable as the queen, but I knew that I wasn't exactly in my strongest position ever either.

And so I was relieved when she and Pam came home unscathed. Their reports of chaos in the court were disturbing and the fact that apparently some vampires from Nevada may have attacked the palace guards was even more upsetting. I feared that some ambitious monarch would try and take Louisiana. I wouldn't be too pleased about that happening, and I definitely didn't want it happening while my children were at the palace.

Pam was taking excellent care of Fangtasia and running any business regarding Area Five by me before making any decisions. Sookie was at home, taking care of me. Mostly I just needed blood and rest, but she often curled up in bed with me while I worked on my laptop or read. She would make runs to Fangtasia to bring me any paperwork that needed signing. To an outsider, it would seem that everything was perfectly normal. The only people who really knew that I was still recovering were those that I trusted completely.

In spite of continued pain in my back, Sookie and I were able to make love as long as she was on top and did all of the heavy lifting. She was happy to comply. During one particularly steamy moment, I declared that she was mine, which was a common phrase in our bedroom conversation, as you can imagine. She couldn't answer me because she had a mouthful at the moment, but I caught a definite twinge of guilt from her. I didn't address it at the time because I was…well…busy, but I made a mental note to address it later. But then later, it seemed unimportant. I never for a second worried about Sookie's fidelity. And I knew that such a discussion could easily lead to an argument, and well, frankly, I just wasn't in the mood to get myself stunned by saying something to make her mad. I was too content and didn't want to rock the boat. I just couldn't imagine that it could be anything really important anyway, and so I just let it go.

One night Sookie and I were downstairs in the den watching a movie when suddenly she sat up in alarm and announced that Quinn was here. I couldn't hear or smell him myself and couldn't imagine what the fuck that stupid tiger would be doing at our house, but I got up to see about it. I was on my way to the front door when Sookie stopped me. "Wait. There are also ten vampires out there." That's when I knew that something was terribly wrong. There was no good reason for ten vampires and a shifter to be at the house. I told Sookie to go and tell the staff to get into the safe room in the basement and then come right back to me. I took my phone out and called Pam but got her voice mail. I'd spoken to her earlier in the evening and everything seemed to be fine. But clearly, it wasn't fine anymore.

Sookie and I stood together facing the door waiting and listening. I heard one pair of feet approach the door. Sookie called out, "Who's there?"

"It is I, Victor Madden." My heart sank. There's only one reason that a vampire like Victor Madden would be at my house with nine other vampires. The takeover that I had been dreading was taking place. I opened the door and invited him inside, knowing that I had no real choice.

He stood in the entry way and addressed us. "Eric, you're looking well. And you must be the famous Sookie Stackhouse. What a pleasure. Now before you go and stun me, please know that there are eighteen vampires outside ready to storm the house if I should fall."

"You seem to have lost your ability to count, Victor. There are nine other vampires and a shifter." He turned his fake smile to me when I spoke. I could hear the tiger pacing on the porch. Victor reached back and opened the door.

"I'm inviting my little pet kitty in to join me."

"If he pees on my hardwoods, I'll make him a rug."

"He cannot be stunned, my dear." He addressed Sookie who just stood frozen.

"Eric, your queen is dead." I was expecting that.

"And the others?"

"Some remain. A fellow named Rasul…a few other staff. Poor Sigebert and Wybert have joined their maker. Sookie, we spared your darling cousin who is safe for the moment." There was a definite threat in his voice. I knew Hadley only lived as leverage to control Sookie.

"And the sheriffs? How many remain?"

"Let's see. Hmmm. Oh yes, just one." And he gestured to me with a grand flourish.

"Fangtasia?"

"It is surrounded. Your people are waiting for your call before they surrender. One female who got away has been picking off my people one by one and it is most irritating." I knew that he was referring to Pam. "So what's it going to be, Sheriff? Will you be a good little boy and accept the sovereignty of your new king? Or are you going to be a problem for me to solve?" He took a step towards me and stared at me with a smug smile on his face that made me want to slap it off. I returned his glare, thinking of my response when suddenly his smile faded to a blank expression, his eyelids fluttered shut, and his knees buckled. He hit the floor with a loud thump.

I had no intention of harming Victor, but I wasn't unhappy that Sookie had just bought me a few minutes to consider my decision. I had no idea who had that tiger's loyalty. He had saved Sookie twice (and me and Pam as well) and he clearly had a boner for her, but I wasn't sure why else he would have attached himself to her. He was here with Victor as some sort of bodyguard, and so I didn't trust him at all. He made a move towards Sookie and I had no way of knowing what his motive was and so I backhanded him, sending him crashing into the wall. I felt immediate pain. It caught me off guard and for a second I wondered if he had somehow harmed Sookie before I hit him even though it made no sense. But I knew that I was feeling Sookie's pain. I looked at her and she dropped her eyes to the floor and felt guilt. Suddenly, I put two and two together and it dawned on me that she was bonded to the fucking tiger. I felt her pain because she felt his. I wanted to smash something, kill the tiger. I wanted answers from Sookie, but this was not the time or place. If we argued and I pissed her off now, she could get me killed with one stun. I tried with all my might to control my temper. I gritted my teeth and whispered so that only vampire ears could hear me. "Keep your fucking shields up." She nodded, still watching the floor.

I watched the tiger pacing against the wall. He never took his eyes off of me, but he kept his distance. I tried Pam's cell phone again, but got voice mail. I called the bar and Maxwell Lee answered. I told him to let me know if he couldn't get to Pam and make her return to the bar. I could always call her to me if needed. We briefly discussed the situation and I told him of my decision. As I hung up, Victor began to awaken and leapt to his feet, fangs down.

"I accept the sovereignty of your king."

Victor looked around the room and seemed to realize that he was unharmed and had won for the moment. "Lovely." His fangs retracted and that smug smile returned.

"Now call your goons off of my bar and get that pussy out of my house."

I closed the door as they left, and went to get my human staff out of the basement. I had to make sure that my area vampires had all survived and I didn't have the time or patience to deal with Sookie.


	9. Chapter 9

I knew that my bonding with Quinn would catch up to me. I knew that I should have told Eric what had happened. I was weak and kept it to myself, just sort of ignoring it, which was childish. It could have had much more disastrous effects. When Quinn was fighting with Wybert behind the palace, it never occurred to me that he was working for the Nevada vampires. I could see that I was still so naïve. I thought that Quinn was my friend and his saving my life and helping me with Pam and Eric had me convinced of his loyalty. But then he had also made the suggestion that I leave Eric to die at Rhodes and I had just conveniently chosen to ignore that little fact.

When Quinn showed up at the house with Victor Madden, I couldn't help but feel betrayed. And then when I saw how angry Eric was at the revelation of my bonding with Quinn, I just felt horrible. I'd screwed up, big time. As soon as Victor and Quinn left, I tried to apologize to Eric. He just barked, "Not now," and left the room to go and see about the humans who were in our safe room. Then he dismissed me again to call the bar. He made several more calls and it all sounded scary and important. I went up to our bedroom and waited for him, knowing that I had a lot of explaining to do and dreading it. I really had no excuse other than stupidity for my bond with Quinn. Eric had never punished me before, but I knew that as my master, he certainly had the right to. I got ready for bed and waited, but Eric never came.

I woke the following night alone. I got up to get dressed and found a note from Eric:

I have to go to Fangtasia. Stay here.

E.

I was concerned about his going out since he still hadn't completely healed from his injuries from the bombing. It worried me that others would see his weakness and it might make him vulnerable. I knew that I was in the dog house and so I obeyed and stayed at home. It was a very long night trying to watch TV or read. I just kept watching the clock and hoping to hear something. Finally, 2 a.m. came and went and I knew the bar would be closed. I kept watching the door, expecting Eric to come home and rehearsing my apology, but he didn't come. I tried calling him but just got his voice mail. I called Pam and she said that they had closed up the bar and she'd left but that Eric was probably still there with the new king. I waited another half an hour or so and decided that I couldn't just sit there any longer. I thought I'd just drive by and check to make sure his car was there and that everything looked okay.

As I was pulling into the parking lot, I felt Eric's anxiety, dismay, pain, fear. I also felt Quinn. I stopped and parked and got out as quietly as I could. I tiptoed around the building and peeked into the back parking lot and couldn't believe my eyes. Eric and a guy in a black cape were tied with silver and lying face down on the ground. Quinn was tied with rope to the front of Eric's car. And standing over Eric with a bloody knife was none other than the recently rumored to be finally dead Sigebert. I surmised that the cape guy must be the new king. He was in fairly decent shape, but Eric had several bloody gashes across his back. Sigebert bent over Eric and stuck the knife in between his shoulder blades. I felt the pain and inhaled sharply just as my vision began to cloud from anger. While I was blinded, I heard Quinn shout, "Sookie!"

At the same moment, Eric yelled, "Run!" I heard Sigebert's footsteps as he came towards me, but I stood still and let my anger wash over me. I heard the thud just in front of me and within a few seconds, I saw Sigebert's body lying at my feet. I took the knife from his lifeless hand, bent down and started whacking at his neck. It took four or five strokes, but soon his head separated from his body and he began the messy disintegration process. I stood and took a few steps towards Quinn who was the closest to me and cut his ropes with my knife. Then I let the knife fall to the ground and went to see to Eric.

Before I could get to Eric, Quinn spun me around and said, "Sookie, wait." I was shocked just enough to give him my attention and saw that he had the knife in his hand. "Sookie, before you do that, just think for a second. There's a new regime in place. You can have any position you want. You don't need him anymore. This is a chance to be free, to have something of your own. I know you care for me. I can help you. We can work together with the new king. Take a chance. Create your own freedom." He took my hand and placed the knife handle in it and took a step back.

I looked at Eric lying helpless and bloody and then over to the king who was just silently watching with interest. I dropped the knife and took a step towards Eric again. Quinn jumped in front of me and placed a hand on my chest to stop me. "I get it. I do." And then he bent and picked up the knife. "I'll take care of it for you, babe." He turned towards Eric and I felt my vision blur, but this time I used all my might to raise my shields. I couldn't stun Quinn, and if I was blinded for a few seconds, he would kill Eric and I'd be helpless to stop him.

I felt my sight return and reached out to grab Quinn's shoulder. I turned him around and knocked him to the ground. I was on him in a flash, straddling his body as I sank my fangs into his neck. I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck and realized that he was trying to cut my head off with the knife. I never disengaged, but bit down harder as I grabbed his bicep and yanked as hard as I could. I felt his arm pull from its socket and heard the knife hit the ground as he screamed in pain. The pain was shooting through me as well since we were bonded. I heard Eric groan, but I couldn't tell if it was from the pain or the bloodlust. He was merely a few feet away and had a perfect view of the mess I was making of Quinn's neck. I sucked the blood and continued chewing through the flesh until I felt Quinn's heartbeat stop.

I let go and sat up, first looking to Eric who was staring at me with a lustful smile, fangs down. Then I turned to the king who had a similar expression on his face. I forgot myself for a second, not remembering that he was my new king and said, "I am so sick of people fucking with my boyfriend."

"I will keep that in mind, my dear," he said with a thick accent. And then he looked over to Eric. "She is magnificent."

I burned my hands untying the king first. He stood and I bowed to him. "Please forgive my insolence, your majesty."

"Forgiven and forgotten."

I started to untie Eric and as he sat up, he grabbed me in his arms and ravaged me with a powerful kiss. Our tongues roughly intertwined and then he began to lick the blood from my chin and neck. In spite of the pain in the back of my neck and Eric's back, we were grabbing onto each other until I heard the king clear his throat behind us.

We stopped, Eric finished untying his feet and we both stood to bow. "I owe you, Miss Stackhouse." I said nothing. "Oh here, I'll take care of this for you and leave you two to celebrate." He scooped Quinn's body up off the ground and threw it over his shoulder, walking away around the side of the building. Eric and I waited until we heard a car start and then he grabbed me again and threw me on top of the hood of his car.

We were tearing at each other's clothes and kissing wildly and soon I was missing enough of my clothes so that he could enter me with a loud roar. I felt the metal of the hood buckle beneath me and had a brief thought that Eric would be unhappy about that later, but that was replaced immediately with a thought of how happy Eric was at that moment. In spite of the pain we were both in, we went at it like animals. Eric and I loved each other and we had made love many times, but this was by definition a fuck, and an excellent one. It was the perfect union of bloodlust and simple sexual lust as we both loudly pumped and licked and growled until we cried out from our powerful orgasms, clinging to each other tightly.

Eric suggested we take my car home since his would need some work tomorrow. I threw him the keys and he drove us home in a comfortable silence. I watched him and felt a powerful exchange of love between us. If there was any doubt about my ability to adjust to my new circumstances, it was gone now. I am a vampire. I felt it and embraced it. Eric and I had a future to face together. And I looked forward to every minute of it.

XXX


End file.
